Sword Art Online Episode 22: The Grand Quest
In which we're really doing this, huh?
So we pick up where last episode left off. Kirito shoots up toward the tree, and slams directly into an invisible wall. Then he does it again. And again, like a bird that doesn't understand the concept of windows. Leafa (apparently I've been spelling it wrong this whole time) is concerned and wonders why Kirito cares about this person so much. Yui calls out for Mommy.
In the birdcage, Asuna suddenly sees a warning symbol in the upper corner of her vision, and she can hear Yui's voice. She calls down, but when she doesn't get an answer she figures she needs to drop something so they will know she's up there.
Kirito keeps making dumb attempts to get through the barrier, and tells Leafa he has to try. He sees something falling from the tree. It's a keycard. (Apparently Asuna pocketed this last episode and I failed to notice.) Yui says it's an admin keycard, but it's useless without the correct terminal. They figure out that Asuna probably dropped it. Kirito says he's going to attempt the world tree by himself, and he grasps Leafa's hand to thank her for her help and say goodbye. He drops down to the ground in a three point landing and zooms for the tree. There are big statues blocking the entrance and they ask if he wants to start the grand quest. He does, and does a bunch of posing with his sword that is supposed to make him look badass or something, but we know that sword is vendor garbage, bro.
So he goes in the room and it's essentially a gigantic cylinder and he needs to get to the top. Enemies keep spawning out of these panels on the walls, and we get a pretty decently animated fight as he kills a few of them. He starts flashing back to moments with Asuna and chanting her name as he fights higher and higher. Unfortunately, those damn Anor Londo archers shoot him like seven times and he dies.
At this point, Kirito finds himself staring at like a ten minute respawn timer, and goes into an existential crisis and stuff, questioning why he didn't respect the game's rules and going on about how he thought he could do anything and is this his punishment for hubris and all this nonsense. Dude you just said three minutes ago that it wasn't a big deal if you died in this game, get it together.
Suddenly all the enemies that are still milling about turn to look towards the entrance door. It's Leafa! She's flying to get to Kirito, using her sword and dodging through a barrage of arrows to pick up his respawn flame or whatever, then barely making it through the door. She resurrects him and he's like thanks but I don't want to waste any more of your time, and she says he can't do it alone, but he says he has to try. Leafa grabs him from behind and tells him to stop and go back to the way he was, because he means so much to her.
Kirito tells her he has to go up there, he has to see her again. He has to see Asuna.
And can I just stop for a second and say how contrived it is that he hasn't said her name until now, and also how it's weird that Suguha knows Asuna's name and that she played under her screen name, and doesn't know that Kazuto is Kirito? Like, how would you have one piece of knowledge and not the other? Just seems odd.
Anyway, Leafa finally puts together that this character who looks just like Kazuto and has a name similar to Kazuto is actually Kazuto. She begins crying and saying that it's not fair. Kirito figures out it's Suguha, and she logs out.
Suguha's crying in her bed when Kirito knocks on the door. He's apologizing to her, and saying how she probably couldn't understand why he'd put the Nerve Gear on again, and she's like that's not it. She starts talking about how she betrayed her feelings and how when she met Kirito she was ready to give up the love she felt for him. He says love? But we're.. but she says something about how she knows she's not really his sister, and she knows he knew, and that's why he pushed her away. And then now she like, wishes he kept being a jerk to her instead of being nice and caring about her, and that's how she realized how she feels about him, and that's why she tried to forget about those feelings and be in love with Kirito and HWAT THE ACTUAL SHIT IS THIS SHOW
